Education:

Mr. Toms studied at Yale Law School (J.D; editor — Yale Law Journal), Washington and Lee University (B.A., magna cum laude: Phi Beta Kappa) and Cambridge University (Magdalene College — Law Tripos 1).
As an undergraduate, he also studied Soviet Studies at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris.

Professional experience:

Bate C. Toms is the managing partner of B.C. Toms & Co, which 28 years ago was the first Western law firm to open an office in Ukraine. He has since handled the legal work for many of the most significant transactions in Ukraine, including the largest cross-border acquisitions in the oil and gas and agricultural sectors. He more recently successfully acted as the sole Ukrainian legal expert for a major arbitration at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, based on claims for Ukrainian law violations occurring during a corporate raid in the energy sector. Mr. Toms has also handled the legal work for the first IPO for a Ukrainian company and, since then, for many other large IPO’s for Ukrainian companies, a number of large loans for Ukraine and the first successful foreign bank (EBRD) led Ukrainian project financing, as well as many of Ukraine’s largest real estate acquisitions and developments and oil and gas projects. B.C. Toms & Co handles legal work for a number of important agricultural companies. Prior to founding his firm, Mr. Toms was a partner for many years in London at a major multinational law firm. He has written numerous articles on Ukrainian law and is the principal author of the ICC book “Doing Business with Ukraine”. In addition, he is the Chairman of the British Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce (“BUCC”).